


Like One of Your Sprench Girls

by IgnotusSomnium



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: F/M, allusions to sexual content, sexy paintings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26172115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IgnotusSomnium/pseuds/IgnotusSomnium
Summary: Marius and Raphaella get into a painting debacle.
Relationships: Raphaella la Cognizi/Marius von Raum
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Like One of Your Sprench Girls

“I didn’t know you painted.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, la Cognizi. For example, I do speak Spatalian. ‘The Cog,’ with an extra syllable? Really?”

Raphaella rolled her eyes dramatically. “It’s more interesting than ‘Raphaella Favina,’” she admitted. 

“That’s a kind of bean, right? Could you lounge a little more?”

Raphaella scrunched her nose up in distaste. “Marius, dear, do you know how annoying it would be to sit with my wing flat against the wall?”

“Okay, okay, point taken. I’ll do what I can with what I’m given, as an artist must. When did you come up with that name?”

“When I was a kid, honestly. I wanted to be a scientist all my life.” She smiled, looking a bit distant. It was a beautiful sort of look, which Marius wanted to try to capture. That was the look of Raph on the hunt.

“Oh yeah? How far back?”

“Young, I suppose. My parents handed me one of those little chemistry sets. You know, the ones that give you some baking soda and vinegar and a couple of test tubes?”

“I do indeed.”

“Well, I knew what those would do. So instead I took the test tubes out and started catching samples.” She smiled wider, remembering. “Mosquitoes, fruit flies, I even got a caterpillar once. Anything that moved. They all died, of course.” She flipped her hand in a motion that was both dismissive and deliberate. “I was a kid. Didn’t really understand what I was doing. You know.”

“I get it,” Marius agreed, though he was more interested in the shape of her thighs right now.

“Anyway, I didn’t get any useful data out of it, but I was fascinated. It gave me a chance to look at animal anatomy… anyway, point is, I started looking into biomechanics.”

“Still a bit of a way from caterpillars to functional wings, love,” Marius noted as he painted on some highlights.

“It did take about thirty years, dear,” Raphaella said dryly. 

“Then tell me about it,” he said. “I’ve got a ways to go, and I do understand a bit about biomechanics.”

So she did, explaining to him the details of how she went from a relatively disadvantaged child to the top of her field in biomechanical engineering, and how that led her to building her own wings and inducing immortality on herself. It was a story that Marius had heard before, so he let it pass over him as he painted. It was a slow process, but eventually he put down his brush for good.

“I think that should do,” he said. Marius wasn’t really expecting it when Raphaella got up and rushed to see what he’d painted. He really wanted to run when her wings drooped.

“Marius.”

“Yes?”

“You can’t paint.”

“Never said I could!” he said with a bright smile, hoping that pretending he’d been honest was the best bet.

“You spent an hour staring at me for... this.”

Marius frowned and tipped his head to the side. “I don’t know about an  _ hour _ …”

Raphaella looked for an instant like she was about to stab him in the throat, but then she took a deep breath and calmed down. “You know what. We did make a deal.”

Marius blinked. “I said I would paint you and you could… ah.”

Raphaella smirked. “Do whatever I please.”

Well, never let it be said that Marius von Raum wasn’t a man of his word. At least, in this specific case. “I am yours, my dear.”

Raphaella rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the shirt collar, and dragged him off to her room.


End file.
